We've opened submissions for the 2018 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing at a critical time for immigrants: just as news breaks that DACA will end unless Congress acts to prolong it. The Prize is, primarily, a celebration of the many ways in which immigrants enrich our culture. Some of the most vivid literature of recent years can be attributed to immigrant authors, whose deft voices expertly bridge cultural gaps and tear down linguistic barriers. This year's Prize is also a testament to the countless Americans whose lives are deeply enmeshed in the fabric of our society and who are being subjected to the threat of deportation.

Now in its third year, the Prize for New Immigrant Writing is expanding to include first-generation immigrants from around the world. All who meet the eligibility requirements are encouraged to apply. Restless will publish an outstanding debut work of fiction and award its author $10,000, as we did with our inaugural winner, Deepak Unnikrishnan's Temporary People.

As Restless publisher Ilan Stavans writes in his introduction to the prize, “immigrants have shown us what resilience and dedication we’re capable of, and have expanded our sense of what it means to be global citizens. In these times of intense xenophobia, it is more important than ever that these boundary-crossing stories reach the broadest possible audience”. This year we could not be more proud to affirm our commitment to immigrant literature. We can’t wait to read and share what the new voices of the world have to say!

More about Past Winners of the Immigrant Writing Prize

The 2017 Immigrant Writing Prize for Nonfiction has been awarded to Grace Talusan for her memoir, The Body Papers, a brave, artful memoir about trauma, illness, and immigration as told through personal and official documentation. The judges praised her writing, stating that “ She tackles with literary subtlety and a deep reservoir of compassion the paradoxes imposed by being the 'perfect immigrant'—but also an 'illegal' one." The book is scheduled to be published in the Fall of 2018. Read More.

By Grace Talusan

“Grace Talusan writes eloquently about the most unsayable things: the deep gravitational pull of family, the complexity of navigating identity as an immigrant, and the ways we move forward even as we carry our traumas with us. Equal parts compassion and confession, The Body Papers is a stunning work by a powerful new writer who—like the best memoirists—transcends the personal to speak on a universal level.”—Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere

By Deepak Unnikrishnan

"Guest workers of the United Arab Emirates embody multiple worlds and identities and long for home in a fantastical debut work of fiction, winner of the inaugural Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing.… The author's crisp, imaginative prose packs a punch, and his whimsical depiction of characters who oscillate between two lands on either side of the Arabian Sea unspools the kind of immigrant narratives that are rarely told. An enchanting, unparalleled anthem of displacement and repatriation."